When the CEO is the corporate brand

India has had its fair share of celebrity CEOs over the past few decades. From JRD Tata to Ratan Tata. GD Birla to Kumar Mangalam Birla. Dhirubhai Ambani to Mukesh Ambani

Lee Iacocca was a legendary chief executive officer (CEO), the first in a queue that included others such as Sergio Marchionne, Elon Musk and Carlos Ghosn from the auto industry who became flag-bearers for their respective corporate brands; one whose “inspired leadership” style presaged the arrival of Apple Inc.’s Steve Jobs, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Tesla’s Elon Musk and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos amongst others.

Iacocca’s fame started to soar with the Ford Mustang, which was introduced at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York, and became a super-duper hit. Iacocca and the car appeared on the covers of Time